Theme: Europe’s internal and external borders

The new European borders
by Anja Lederer and Heiner Busch
For the construction of the EU state, which is being sold as an „area of freedom, security and justice“, the border policy and „fight against illegal migration“ plays a crucial role. Protection of the external borders still lies within the jurisdiction of the member states, but the technically highly-equipped external border systems have long since been harmonised at the European level. Parallel to this, new borders have arisen inland. Summaries weiterlesen →

Theme: State power and the media

Friend and persecutor – an introduction
by Norbert Pütter and Heiner Busch
In today’s world, police and security services play an active role in selling their work to the media. They create events which media can report on, they try to bind journalists and media producers to the apparatus by providing them with „exclusive“ information and sometimes even material incentives. The flipside of this cosy give-and-take relationship between journalists and law enforcement, is a strategy of exclusion of non-cooperating media, criminal prosecutions or even direct use of force against, in particular, critical media. Summaries weiterlesen →

Focus: International Anti-Terrorism

State power beyond the law – an introduction
by Norbert Pütter and Heiner Busch
The new global anti-terrorism is characterised by three core elements: an international surveillance structure is created in its name. Wars and military operations are justified by it. And last but not least, the „war on terror“ creates instruments that are neither war nor criminal prosecution, but that link military with police and secret service actions and deny terror suspects all fundamental rights. Summaries weiterlesen →

Prevention: variants of popular belief
by Norbert Pütter
‚Better safe than sorry‘ is not only a popular platitude but also a way to justify any form of police intervention, including repressive ones, as prevention. Next to legitimating the use of state force, preventative policing always implies that future security threats have to be predicted. The logic of prevention thereby creates a need for increased information gathering. As a consequence, the current restructuring of the police according to this logic aims primarily at the police’s capacity to collect and evaluate information, also by means of secret practices, and at the provision of a legal basis for these practices. Further, the logic of prevention necessarily leads to more control and surveillance in everyday civil life. The limitation of state intervention and any chance of a political and legal control of the police are therefore lost. Summaries weiterlesen →

Helpless data protection
by Heiner Busch
Since the 1980s, Germany has been experiencing a spiral of legalisation regarding the methods and technical instruments of police and security services. The result is not the definition of clear norms limiting state surveillance, but rather a rhetoric of data protection law. Illusions about the effect of the Rule of Law, individualising concepts and depoliticisation have turned data protection into a legitimising accessory. Summaries weiterlesen →

EU state in the making
by Heiner Busch
The EU draft constitution has failed. The real constitution remains: the expansive internal market, the militarised external EU policy, restrictive external border policy and an increasingly repressive development of „internal security“ policy. The EU presents itself as an incomplete state. Although governments and Member States control the Council, they pursue an EU legislation that allows them to abolish restrictions they would face under national law. Summaries weiterlesen →

Guests in a high security wing – the preparations for the world cup 2006
by Heiner Busch
„The world is our guest – a time to make friends“, this is the motto of the world cup 2006. As a welcome, Germany is positioning 100.000 police officers, 10.000 private security employees, an unknown number of secret security agents and 7.000 soldiers. Large parts of the Federal Republic will develop into a police-controlled area. CCTV surveillance will not only take place in the stadiums, but also in the enclosed „public viewing areas“. 250.000 people, those who will enter the stadiums without tickets as journalists, volunteers, hot dog sellers or cleaning staff, will have to undergo a security check by the internal security service (Verfassungsschutz). Summaries weiterlesen →

Crime fighting laws and the rule of law – an introduction
by Norbert Pütter, Heiner Busch and Wolf-Dieter Narr
During the last few years, the Federal Constitutional Court on several occasions declared police powers unconstitutional, thereby forcing the federation and the Länder to implement new laws. However, the court’s demand for the protection of the „core areas of private life“, which police and secret services are not allowed to infringe upon during their surveillance operations, does not solve the fundamental problem: any powers designed to fight criminal acts which might possibly occur in the future through the secret collection of data, inevitably lead to undefined legal concepts and destroy the limiting character of the law. Summaries weiterlesen →